PUT HIM ON A PLANE

I wept when I heard news.. It's prolonging the torture, like waiting to go to his desk when we were children. This is heartbreaking for the men whose lives he scarred. Why hasn't he boarded a flight?

- MARCELLO MEGA

BROADCASTER Nicky Campbell shed tears on learning that the extradition from South Africa of retired teacher Iain Wares has been held up again.

Nicky, 63, said the continuing delay was heartbreaking for those waiting for justice after allegedly being sexually abused or brutally beaten by Wares in the 60s and 70s at his old school, Edinburgh Academy, and at nearby Fettes College.

He challenged Wares, now 85 and living in a retirement community on the outskirts of Cape Town, to stop being a coward and to voluntarily come to Scotland to face justice.

Nicky said: "I wept when I heard the news of further delay. Wares has abused hundreds of young boys over a long period.

"I saw it. I know it. It's prolonging the torture, like waiting to go to his desk when we were children.

"This is heartbreaking for men whose lives he has scarred."

The South African Ministry of Justice decided in the summer, after lengthy legal arguments lasting years, that Wares should be "extradited soonest" to face the many charges waiting in Scotland.

But a single charge he faces of sexually abusing one pupil in South Africa is enabling Wares and his legal advisers to delay justice for his alleged Scottish victims.

A hearing that should have taken place last Tuesday - originally set for September and, at that time, continued from July - was postponed at the last minute because a lawyer taking part in the proceedings had become ill.

The case will now call on March 6, next year but is likely to be continued well beyond that date, which is said to be causing severe distress to his alleged victim in South Africa.